Microsoft has acquired HockeyApp, a developer tools platform that allows people to manage beta testing and analytics for apps running on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Mac OS X. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to a blog post by S. Somasegar, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for its Developer Division, the HockeyApp acquisition will allow Microsoft to integrate app analytics for iOS and Android apps into Visual Studio’s Application Insights feature. That will allow mobile developers who use Microsoft’s development environment to track the performance of their apps on other mobile platforms through Visual Studio for the first time.
It’s another move by Microsoft to diversify its developer tools and holdings to other mobile platforms beyond Windows. The company highlighted work done on iOS and Android during its Build developer conference earlier this year, and has since begun expanding its software products to those other mobile operating systems.
The Stuttgart, Germany-based HockeyApp team said in a blog post today that the company is continuing to develop its platform, and that users’ accounts will remain active. The company plans to announce more details of its integration with Microsoft in the coming months.
Developer testing and analytics platforms like HockeyApp have been hot acquisition targets. Apple purchased TestFlight, one of the leading iOS testing platforms, last year and has since used the company’s technology to create its own beta testing program that removes many of the restrictions that HockeyApp manages on iOS. Twitter bought mobile analytics platform Crashlytics, while Yahoo purchased Flurry and Google bought Appurify.
